Thursday, May 31, 2012

Ian Kyger: 6 Month Tribute

This is Ian Kyger:

At 19 years old he decided to meet with the LDS Missionaries. All his life he made fun of Mormons even though he had friends that were members
of the LDS church. The first time he met with us he just wanted to Bible Bash. He had no real intentions of wanting to know the truth at that time. He brought his missionary friend from his church and an entire BINDER full of anti-Mormon literature. Intellectually we would lose this battle if we tried to "Bash." I was a new Senior Companion and had only
been out about 7 months; my companion was only out about 4 months.

We didn't know the Bible nearly as well as
he did. But a testimony does not come from intellectually convincing someone or "Bible Bashing." In fact, we didn't read a single
scripture because the Spirit directed us otherwise. Instead, we testified and brought all his branch questions back to roots of a testimony. Which is, if the Book of Mormon is true then
“Jesus is the Christ; Joseph
Smith is the prophet, seer, and revelator in these last days; and
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is the Lord's
Kingdom once again established on the Earth today preparatory to
the second coming of the Messiah.”

We committed Ian Kyger to read the Book of Mormon... all research aside. He said he would contact us if he wanted to meet again which most returned missionaries can attest that that usually means they won't ever contact the missionaries. Months later everything was falling through. The week was hard, but at the
end of the night I prayed and specifically asked God for a miracle. Not even 10 minutes later
we got a call... from Ian Kyger.

He wanted to meet with us the next day. To
make a long story short... he started to go to Young Single Adult activities and Institute... and most importantly he started gaining "real intent." He was almost disowned by his family and kicked out of his house. He lost many friends.

He was not only baptized...

but Ian Kyger is now Elder Kyger serving in the Colorado Denver North
Mission.

What are you willing to sacrifice to come closer to God? How do you remain a disciple of Christ when you are hated and persecuted by others?

Ian Kyger began serving his mission on November 16th. Here's to over 6 months of service!